Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Lindau Gospel

So, I was looking at that blank journal that I showed in my last post... the one with the intricate covers. The notation on the inside says this is a reproduction of the back cover of the Lindau Gospel. I wondered why they reproduced the back cover of the original book on both the front and back of this journal. What did the front cover of that book look like? Well, it looks like this...

Wow. Wow again. This book is thought to have been created between 750 and 800 AD near Salzburg. It is elaborately tooled in gold, silver, and enamel, and decorated with jewels. Some of my research indicated the cover is more elaborate than the pages, and the covers may have been made for a different purpose than where they ended up. The pages are not as "beautiful" as other pages from more famous manuscripts. Here is a sample of one of the pages below. On some of the pages I looked at online, you could see guidelines on the pages, made by running something across the page to make an indentation. These days, we either draw guidelines with a pencil, then erase them later, or we could use a bone folder to make the indentations.

I may have to rethink what I use this for. I definitely need to honor the beauty of the original. More info about Lindau Gospel here and here.

The book pictured is the real one, in a museum. The one I have is a blank journal, with reproduction covers (minus the jewels!) Sorry if I didn't explain that very well. But if you'd make me about 100 bezels with jewels, mine could look like that!